Category: Євросоюз

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met the head of the Anglican church in London on Thursday and promised to promote interfaith dialogue as part of his domestic reforms, the British faith leader’s office said. Prince Mohammed is making an official visit to London to promote Saudi Arabia as a tolerant, modernising economy and build a wider trade and investment relationship with Britain, a long-term defence ally. On the second full day of his first foreign tour since becoming heir apparent to the Saudi throne last year, Prince Mohammed also had meetings with finance minister Philip Hammond, bankers and lawmakers, …

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Rallies are being held across the globe Thursday to both celebrate International Women’s Day, and to demand an end to the exploitation, discrimination and violence that women continue to face. In the Philippine capital of Manila, hundreds of women dressed in pink and purple took to the streets to protest the 4,000 people killed under President Rodrigo Duterte and his heavy-handed crackdown on illicit drugs. Human rights activists say Duterte’s vow to kill thousands of illicit drug dealers have led police to carry out extrajudicial killings of suspected dealers and users. In Seoul, women’s groups used the day to boost …

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British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Thursday will have a plan ready to respond if investigators identify someone responsible for a nerve agent attack against a former Russian double agent. “There is nothing soft about the UK’s response to any sort of state activity in this country,” she told the BBC. “You may not hear about it all, but when we do see that there is action to be taken, we will take it.” British counterterrorism police have said Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter were poisoned by a nerve agent Sunday in the normally quiet town of Salisbury. A …

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Several Eastern European states have ramped up their opposition to a new gas pipeline linking Russia with Germany. The Nord Stream 2 project will bring Russian gas directly to Western Europe, but critics say it will increase dependence on Russia and enrich its state-owned energy firms at a time when Moscow stands accused of endangering European security. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. …

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The tip-off came from the British government itself that Downing Street had no stomach for a fight over Ukraine and Russia’s takeover of Crimea. Four years ago when the European Union and the United States were bracing themselves to punish Russia and were debating what sanctions to impose, a British official allowed a note detailing the government’s position to peek out from his briefcase. “Not support, for now, trade sanctions … or close London’s financial center to Russians,” read the document snapped by a freelance photographer. That was the government of David Cameron, Theresa May’s predecessor, who wanted to exempt …

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Two Democratic senators on Wednesday asked major vendors of U.S. voting equipment whether they have allowed Russian entities to scrutinize their software, saying the practice could allow Moscow to hack into American elections infrastructure. The letter from Senators Amy Klobuchar and Jeanne Shaheen followed a series of Reuters reports saying that several major global technology providers have allowed Russian authorities to hunt for vulnerabilities in software deeply embedded across the U.S. government. The senators requested that the three largest election equipment vendors — Election Systems & Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart Intercivic — answer whether they have shared source …

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The International Monetary Fund and European leaders pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, saying it would provoke a calamitous global trade war. IMF chief Christine Lagarde told a European radio interviewer, “If international trade is called into question by these types of measures, it will be a transmission channel for a drop in growth, a drop in trade and it will be fearsome. In a trade war that will be fed by reciprocal increases of customs tariffs, no one wins.” Lagarde said the IMF is “anxious” that U.S. …

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China and Russia are working to expand their influence across Africa, hoping to outspend or out-compete the United States, U.S. officials warn, describing it as part of a larger effort by both countries to reshape the world order. For months, top national security officials have been talking about the reemergence of what they describe as a great power competition, calling out China and Russia as the two countries doing the most to counter the United States. Officials say the efforts by Beijing and Moscow are both regional and global, with both pursuing strategies to deny the U.S. access to conflict …

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The Eiffel Tower will light up to honor women’s rights and promote the French equivalent of the Time’s Up movement.   The message “Maintenant On Agit” (“Now We Act”) will be displayed all Wednesday evening on the Parisian monument ahead of International Women’s Day on Thursday.   In a short ceremony, Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo are set to make a speech alongside members of women’s rights associations to support the movement.   Launched by the Foundation of Women, the movement aims to raise funds for associations helping women pursue cases before justice, “so that no …

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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was welcomed by Queen Elizabeth II — and criticized by protesters against the war in Yemen — as he began a three-day visit to Britain on Wednesday. Britain is rolling out the red carpet for Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who had lunch with the queen at Buckingham Palace and will dine later with Prince Charles and Prince William. He is also due to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May, who said she would raise concerns about human rights during talks at 10 Downing St. Critics say Britain has been slow to condemn …

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The European Union is cool to the idea of Britain’s “associate membership” in various agencies of the bloc as proposed by London to make Brexit less disruptive for British business. Britain started a process to leave the EU last year because it no longer wants to accept the authority of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the free movement of workers, and it does not want to contribute to the EU budget. But it is keen to keep most of its other links with the EU, especially unfettered access to the EU’s market. EU officials call this approach “cherry-picking,” where London …

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The Vatican on Tuesday signaled its concern over the results of Italy’s national election, which saw sharp gains for populist and anti-immigrant parties. The biggest winners were the League — the largest party in a center-right grouping that employed the most fiery anti-migrant rhetoric during the campaign — and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, was asked on the sidelines of a conference on immigration if the Holy See was worried about the results. “The Holy See has to work in whatever conditions arise. We can’t (always) have the society that we would like …

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At least 21 Libyan migrants who were trying to make the dangerous Mediterranean Sea journey to Italy late last week are missing and feared drowned.  The U.N. migration agency said Tuesday that they were part of a large group who had set off from Libya aboard a wooden boat and a rubber dinghy and had to be rescued at sea. Survivors said there was a panic on one of the vessels and people fell overboard, but the details of what happened were unclear. The Libyan Coast Guard returned some to Libya while a Cypriot commercial ship picked up others. They …

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The French government has proposed a law to set 15 as the age of consent for sex following two high-profile cases in which men escaped rape convictions despite having intercourse with 11-year-old girls. France currently has no age of consent. However, adult sex with a minor younger than 15 is classified as sexual assault or molesting, punishable by up to five years in prison, compared with 20 years in prison for rape. In order for an incident to qualify as rape, prosecutors have to prove the victim was forced. In November, a 30-year-old man was cleared of rape after the …

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A Czech Communist lawmaker resigned Tuesday as chair of a parliamentary commission overseeing police internal affairs, after thousands protested the appointment because of his past in a communist-era special unit. Zdenek Ondracek was narrowly elected by the lower house of parliament last Friday to head the commission — the first Communist lawmaker to hold such a post since the fall of communism nearly three decades ago. The appointment was considered a signal the party was gaining influence as Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ ANO party sought its support for a new government. Thousands of Czechs protested in Prague and other …

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As U.S. influence in Islamabad wanes, Pakistan’s former adversary Russia is building military, diplomatic and economic ties that could upend historic alliances in the region and open up a fast-growing gas market for Moscow’s energy companies. Russia’s embrace of Pakistan comes at a time when relations between the United States and its historical ally are unravelling over the war in Afghanistan, a remarkable turnaround from the 1980s, when Pakistan helped funnel weapons and U.S. spies across the border to aid Afghan fighters battling Soviet troops. Though the Moscow-Islamabad rapprochement is in its infancy, and it is neighbor China that is …

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Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she would work with France to tackle pressing issues such as trade policy, the war in Syria and competition with China after the Social Democrats (SPD) approved joining a coalition with her conservatives. Merkel welcomed the vote by a clear majority of SPD members that ended more than five months of political deadlock after an inconclusive election, and she said the right-left government must quickly get to work. “What we’re seeing and hearing every day is that Europe needs to step up and Germany needs to have a strong voice there along with France …

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Ibrahim, a 35-year-old Moroccan who hawks bracelets weaved out of multi-colored fabric in front of Milan’s cathedral, teared up when he spoke of the family he left behind and which relies on the money he sends home. “I really hope they don’t make it even more horrible to stay in this country,” he said. “I want to stay here.” Up and down Italy on Monday, migrants, both legal and not, were pondering their future after the anti-immigrant League surged in popularity in elections the day before. Ibrahim, who declined to give his last name, is one of the lucky ones. …

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President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of new nuclear weapons is part of a resurgent Russian assertiveness that the West is already responding to, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, adding that he hoped to avoid an arms race. Putin unveiled an array of new nuclear weapons — that he said were either ready or in development — last Thursday, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and not be intercepted. “We are of course concerned,” Stoltenberg said during a visit to Iraq. “Because NATO does not want a new Cold War. We don’t want a new …

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A former Russian spy is in critical condition after being exposed to an unknown substance in the English town of Salisbury. British media have identified the man as Sergei Skripal, who was given refuge in Britain after a spy swap between the United States and Russia in 2010. British broadcaster BBC said Skripal, 66, and a woman in her 30s were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon. Wiltshire Police, which is responsible for the Salisbury area, only identified the two by their approximate ages and said “the pair, who we believe are …

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